The Writer's Jungle - Chapter 1

Following my series posts for The Writer's Jungle by Julie Bogart of Brave Writer, here are my thoughts on Chapter 1.

This chapter is MEATY!  And I thought I pretty much knew all there was to know about copywork, dictation, and reading good books! 

No.  No, I do not.  Julie gave me plenty to think about and mull over.

She calls Chapter 1 "The Big Language Arts River."  She describes her adventures along the Congo River and how she finally realized that a huge jungle needs a huge river.  And since her book describes writing as a jungle - you guessed it - we need a big river to supply it.  So what supplies a writing jungle?  A language-rich environment.  Discussions, beautiful books, poems, newspapers, more discussions, noticing the tricks of the trade that writers use, and even more discussions.  Copying and studying the masters, thinking about them, and using them to form who you become as your own writer's voice.

And what is all this discussion called?  Narration.  Popular Charlotte Mason terminology, right?  But narration isn't just about telling back, but TEACHING back.  And it also has to make sense.  Quizzing them at the end of the chapter?  That's not natural, and it doesn't make sense.  For many kids, that just doesn't work.  (It didn't for mine.)  We need a purpose to our narrations.  "Where did we leave off in the story?  Oh, yes, so-and-so was just getting finished with such-and-such!"  "Hey, Dad, guess what I figured out today!"  "Sister, can I teach you a new game I made up?"  Those make sense.

When I read something interesting in a book or on the internet, I don't usually sit down and tell my 13yo all about it formally and not let her get a word in edgewise.  Normally, I mull it over for awhile, then I'll tell my husband all about it when he gets home or after the kids are in bed.  And then we talk about it.  It's a back and forth, give and take.  It's not just me doing all the talking (well, sometimes it is, but that's beside the point LOL).  When my 7yo comes up to me all excited to tell me about the latest thing he discovered about Kylo Ren, he's not formally telling me about it.  No, he's jumping up and down, telling me his discovery, I answer back or ask a question, and he continues telling me all about it and asking me questions.  It's a back and forth.  It is detailed and exciting and keeps the conversation flowing.  And she equates this teaching and telling with ownership.  They own that information.  They know it.  If they can tell it, they get it.  And they will remember it.

But Julie did caution one thing with narration.  Require them to give an actual description.  It's not "cool" or "awesome."  Tell me what made it cool or awesome.  Describe it in such a way that I start to agree with you without you even using the words.

What happens if your kiddo just can't (or won't) narrate?  It's just not going well, it's incomplete (like when I get 1 or 2 sentences instead of a whole paragraph or 3 as desired), it's just not good at all.  Well, of course - they hate the topic, the format you're using to teach them isn't their style, or maybe they just haven't taken ownership of the information yet.  Change it up, or if they just don't know it yet, don't worry - they'll get what they need when they need it.

Oh, hey, shouldn't we be writing every day?  Nope!  Julie, a professional writer, doesn't write every day.  Kids are still learning about creativity and writing and getting ideas into their heads.  Why should they - how can they - write every single day???  For kids under 12, Julie says it's way more important to just guard their enjoyment of writing.  Let it be fun.  Let them study the masters.

How do we guard that enjoyment?  How do they study the masters?  Enter the 3 keys for budding writers. 

Read good writing.  Duh.  Of course.  So simple, and yet sometimes so difficult!  I struggle with reading aloud to my kids.  I lack the time, most days.  And my voice gets sore after a little while.  But it's SO important!  But as you're reading to your kids, don't just read for the story (well, do that, too, and some books, do only that) - but also pay attention to the writing elements.  Musical language, good descriptions, opening hooks - those are a few of the things that we need to pay attention to and watch for to point them out to our kids.  They'll start to recognize what makes a good book, *good.*

Second, copywork.  This is only partially for practicing handwriting.  A huge part of it is copying the masters.  Just as a budding artist copies the master artist first before he learns techniques to become a painter of his own right, so, too, a child - a budding writer - must copy the master author first, learning those techniques that will make his writing as good, or perhaps better, than the master.  Don't make it boring.  Mix it up using a variety of sources, interesting topics and quotes, favorite books, etc.  Hey, even let them choose once in a while!  You can even do this with typing to practice keyboarding skills.

And also dictation.  This is where they will study more of the spelling, punctuation, and handwriting skills.  Julie describes dictation as practiced in French schools.  First the children (under 10 years old) receive a sentence from their teacher with one word blanked out.  Then the teacher dictates the passage, and the student fills in the appropriate word.  The next day there are multiple blanks in the passage.  The third day they add sentences to the initial one, with several words blank.  And then on the fourth day, the entire passage is dictated to the students with no clues.  They must fill in the punctuation and the words all on their own.

This part was a tad confusing to me.  Do they study the passage first?  Or dictate blind?  These are students under 10?  My kids would never be able to do it all the way through the 4th day.  Some didn't read until they were 9 years old, so this just seems to be a little over the top to me.

So I compromised.  Here is what I plan to do with my kids:

With my oldest 2 (ages 13 and 12)
As described in "The Writer's Jungle" - no studying the passage first

With my next 3 who are reading or emerging readers
Day 1) Copy passage precisely.
Day 2) Write 1 sentence with 1 blank.
Day 3) Write same sentence with more blanks (especially homonyms & frequent spelling problems)
Day 4) Dictate sentence without any clues.

I'll see how these go and adjust as necessary.  When my oldest 2 get good at doing it as described, I'll probably make it more difficult.  More blanks at the get-go perhaps?  I'm not sure yet.

Julie also described a game she made up called "Reverse Dictation."  This sounds so fun!  She types up a passage, putting all sorts of mistakes in it - spelling errors, punctuation errors, grammar errors, etc.  Then she prints it out and has the kids edit it.  They get a penny for every correct correction.  For younger students, she gives the number of words misspelled and the number of other mistakes to look for.  Older students have to figure it all out on their own.  I love this idea, but a penny for every mistake, multiplied by 5 or 6 or 7 kids, sounds really expensive....  LOL  I may try it anyway, though.  If for no other reason but an experiment in how much it's actually going to cost me over the long haul.  :P

Spelling skills are addressed through dictation, but Julie used a few pages to describe common spelling problems.  One problem she sees often is misusing homonyms.  She spelled it correctly, just used the wrong one.  "Witch" instead of "which," for example.  She's spelling it right, though, just needs practice with when to use which one.  Isolating those in dictation sessions is perfect for these types of mistakes.  Another problem is phonetic guesswork.  Spelling it as it sounds.  "Hows" instead of "house."  The student just needs to learn some more principles for spelling, but she understands the phonics.  Copywork and dictation will both help with these types of spelling errors.  Now, if your kids can figure out their own spelling mistakes, they'll get there eventually, they just need more time studying those masters - copywork, dictation, and reading a variety of sources.  She even gives advice for auditory learners - spell it out loud first, read out loud to mom more often to slow them down and make them look more carefully at the words on the page - things like that.  But she admits, some students really do have trouble with spelling.  She suggests a spelling program for those students.  And perhaps to even be tested for learning disabilities if it persists.

Grammar?  They'll figure it out as they study those masters.  But Julie (and Charlotte Mason, too) suggest only hitting on grammar once in elementary, once in jr high, and once in high school.  That's all they really need.  The rest will be covered when studying a foreign language (I did learn more grammar in my German class than I ever did in all those English courses).  And who cares if you miss something?  Not knowing what exactly a participle is, is not going to make or break your high school or college career - or your future career.

My assignment this week:

• Continue those free writes!
• Read, read, read!  Get reading more and more and point out those neat things authors do to make their stories superb.  Also keep pointing out those elements of surprise.
• Add in copywork every day, in a variety of ways.  I'm thinking possibly Monday, Bible; Tuesday, from a novel or non-fiction book we've been reading; Wednesday, their week's memory work; Thursday, a poem chosen by me or the child; and Friday, student choice.  I have to redo some of my week's schedule to do this, but I think it's doable.  I hope.  :)
• I also want to try to add in dictation this week, but it may be a tall order.  We'll see how it goes.

Theme Days, or What We're Up to These Days

Last summer the kids and I, every Friday, went on an adventure.  Sometimes other families from our homeschool group joined us, but many weeks we were on our own.  We had SO. MUCH. FUN on these adventures.  We haven’t been able to recreate them during the winter months – partially because of crazy busyness, partially because of illnesses.  We are eager to get back to these.  We went on nature walks, to the zoo, out to Walnut Grove to visit Laura Ingalls’ dugout on Plum Creek, and other adventures that live on in our memories.

It was after we’d been going on these adventures all summer that a good friend introduced me finally convinced me to check out BraveWriter.  And now I am hooked.  I’ve been reading The Writer’s Jungle by Julie Bogart, founder of Brave Writer.  Brave Writer helps parents teach their children how to write – not just write with grammar and semantics, but to write well and to find their own voice.  Julie also puts out videos every week to encourage parents to let go of the school formalities and let their children explore the world.  She has certainly encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and explore new ways of teaching and new ideas of exploration.

At the same time I was learning about Brave Writer, I stumbled upon a YouTube channel called FUNSchooling the Sensational Six.  This is a family of unschoolers, and through her videos and her Facebook page by the same name, she also encouraged me to give up the strict and rigid school schedules in favor of a more relaxed approach.  She also has themed days each week to help her to introduce her children to new things – another way of strewing information for them to discover and then use to grow in their own endeavors.

For years I have followed Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methods exclusively.  I started by using SimplyCharlotte Mason, and then I combined it with AmblesideOnline.  Later I used both as book lists but created my own curriculum.  As more and more children became school age, and especially after adding 2 more school age kids through adoption, it became more and more difficult to maintain that scheduled day I had used and forced ourselves into for so many years.

Last year I finally broke and went to straight unschooling.  For months.  It was survival mode, but it worked.  On so many levels, it worked.  It freed us all to get to know each other, relax, follow our passions, and work on purging the extra clutter from our home (a major contributor to my high levels of anxiety).  As we had amazing adventures and made memories together – as we began exploring this thing called “unschooling” – as I began listening to Julie Bogart’s encouragement and wisdom from years of experience both homeschooling and coaching other homeschoolers – I changed my methodology and philosophy.

Charlotte Mason will always be my first love.  I still give my children only beautiful, moral, living books.  I still believe they are persons, with their own free wills and with their own unique God-given strengths and abilities - in fact, I almost wonder if unschoolers believe this on a deeper level, or multi-levels.  I still hold my children to high moral grounds.  I still purposely study God’s Word with them and help them commit His Words to memory and heart.  We still have routines and bedtimes and wake-up times and chores and certain items we must do daily.

But I’ve changed my approach in how I go about teaching them and strewing new ideas in their paths.  Julie Bogart encourages parents to be brave, and she certainly has helped me to find my courage!  We now have theme days, inspired by FunSchooling the Sensational Six.  We now have added in a few elements from Brave Writer.  And as I read The Writer’s Jungle and learn more about how to better teach my children writing and using the English language, I’m sure I will tweak more of our days.  We will always go through seasons.  We will always have things we can adjust and do better.  But for now, this is where we’re at.

So now we're not really Charlotte Mason homeschoolers, nor are we true unschoolers, but we are somewhat relaxed, and we're doing things in an alternative way.  I'm not sure there's really a name for what we are.  We are just a unique family doing things the way that works for us!

I wanted to give everyone a peek at what that looks like for us for the moment:

Every morning Monday through Thursday, we start with Bible Study.  We handle this on a loop.  For more about looping schedules, these are great articles here and here about what it is and ways to do it.  Our Bible Study lasts for approximately 45 minutes, but I do not stick strictly with this time frame.  If we're in the middle of something, we keep going.  If we're getting restless 10 minutes early, fine; we'll quit.  But more or less, all the kids can handle about 45 minutes or so.  I'm not completely satisfied with this loop yet.  I wish we could do memory work every day and Bible Study every day.  We do find ourselves getting to it 2-3 times a week, so it's not terrible, but I do wish it were even more often.  I may change this in a month or 2 if I still feel the same way about it.  But for now, this is our loop we use.  I've laminated our schedule so I can mark where we left off in our loop and write down what we're currently studying.  Dry erase markers work well on laminated sheets.

Math Mania Monday begins our week.  These are various math books & activities to show them that math doesn’t have to be boring and tedious, but math involves life and fun.  It’s how God ordered the universe, and I read somewhere once, it’s like learning a foreign language.  Unless you’re math-minded, of course.  :P

Read to Me Tuesday is a day of reading literature, books of various topics (non-fiction & fiction), and reading instruction as needed.  I also have the kids rotate practicing reading aloud to everyone else (with help, as needed, of course).

Write it Wednesday is all about… Writing!  This is when we do our Brave Writer free writes, our Poetry Tea Time, copywork, spelling & dictation, etc.  The Preface to The Writer’s Jungle talks about an 8-week free write, so right now, that’s what we’re working on.  They had their first one this past week and really seemed to enjoy it!

Think About It Thursday is where we throw everything else.  Composer and Artist studies, Apologia and other science activities, Passports (our geography unit study), visiting the library and the park, playing games, and a couple of specific things that are for just the oldest 2.

And Fridays are our adventure days.  Right now we have a homeschool group we explore with.  I’m not sure how long that will continue, so for now, I just have both listed.

Of course each student has their own independent work to work through, as well, during the week.  XtraMath.org has been great at getting them to practice those math facts and get them down.  The younger 4 are working through Horizons math, and for now I just help them as they need help or read it to them for the non-readers.  The older 2 are working through Teaching Textbooks.  Mixed feelings from both of them on that one, but for now, it works for us.  The older 2 are in 7^th & 8^th grades, so they have a heavier workload than the other 4.  Of course the toddler has nothing except “stay out of trouble.”  Ha!  In the afternoons I want them to choose either a handicraft, a nature study, or art or drawing to work on.  I got this idea from a seminar I attended with Nancy Kelly from Sage Parnassus.

Another thing that has been working incredibly well for us is writing up our routine for the day on the white board and erasing as we go.  The kids know what to expect all day, and it keeps me focused, too.  Who woulda thunk?  Haha!  Usually I also have a running to-do list for myself on there - phone calls to make, perhaps, or something to do for church, maybe, or a specific request from my husband - and sometimes I'll put extra jobs for the kids if there's something specific I need them to do.  For example, my oldest locked herself out of her treasure box, so one thing I need to put on there for her to do is to find her code that she has written down... somewhere....

And that’s what we’re up to for now!  I feel like it's working well in this season, and we all seem to feel more relaxed.  We are all learning at our own levels, even though almost everything is together.  I plan to do a post about each of the theme days, going into more detail about each thing we do.  Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below, and I’ll try to answer them there or in a separate post if I get enough of the same question or it requires a longer answer.  Thanks for reading!

The Writer's Jungle - Preface

A new series is starting today!  I am currently reading through The Writer's Jungle by Julie Bogart of Brave Writer.  I thought I'd share my thoughts as I go through it, and maybe keep myself accountable to actually keeping going and doing my homework assignments she gives at the end of each chapter.  Haha!

So the Preface to the 2nd Edition has a lot of parts to it.  So much to take in and think about.  Right off the bat she begins with the story of her daughter, who could write but couldn't read.  She told in wonderful detail how she learned to read - by learning Greek, of all things!  And emails with Grandma.  Haha!  This entire section made me sigh in relief.  All kids learn to read - in their own time - and in their own way.  I know this to be true of half of my own kids (the other half are still up and coming), and it felt so good to get confirmation that other kids do this, too!  Eventually it just clicks.  We just have to be patient and enjoy the ride and follow their lead.

Rather than emphasizing grammar and structure, etc, Brave Writer emphasizes "a conscious appreciation of quality writing" (p. xiii).  I love how she helps us do that.  Read good books and non-fiction literature.  Find answers to questions by leading them to new questions.  Stick with the material over a period of time so they can really get to know it.  Understand and think deeply about the techniques and language of the most successful writers.

Copy the masters.  Watch the masters.  Understand the masters.  Just as an artist studies the masters to learn how to paint or sculpt better, a writer imitates the great authors until they break free and discover their own voice.

Ah, the element of surprise.  Julie talked about how great writers surprise us in their work.  Comparisons, referencing pop culture, new vocabulary words, insightful or novel positions taken in their work to open our minds and hearts, and an organizational surprise - leaving the topic sentence until the end.  I highlighted all of these in my book and, as part of my assignment this week, will begin looking for that surprise while reading to the kids.

Listening to our kids and having meaningful conversations is a challenge in a large family household like ours.  With 7 children competing for my time and attention every day - plus a husband ;) - maybe "challenge" is an understatement.  But Julie describes these conversations as critical to gaining new words, which lead to better writing.    But she gave an entire list of ways and times we can spend time with our kids one-on-one, and the list is long and just a start.

I was especially intrigued by her descriptions of freewriting.  She goes into more detail on this in Chapter 4, but touches on it here in the preface.  One caution she gives: if your student is finding freewriting to be challenging or a chore, he is not ready to begin revision.  Wait until he is very comfortable writing and enjoys it.  And go by their readiness, not a timetable you arbitrarily set.

To transition, she suggests freewriting once a week for 8 weeks.  Each week they write for awhile, and then they have a choice.  Ask, "Would you like to read it to me?"  Yes?  Wonderful!  Don't look at it, just listen.  And then compliment at least one thing you genuinely enjoyed.  No, he'd rather not read it?  That's fine!  Either way, put it into a manila envelope and clasp it shut.  DON'T PEEK AT IT, MOM!  I know it's tempting, but don't!

At the end of those 8 weeks, the student will have 8 freewrites.  Compliment her on having so many pieces of writing, and then ask which one she is most interested in.  Explain that we'll revise it together - improve it, give it new vision, and polish it up so that we can share it with others (Dad, Grandma, friends, whoever).

How to revise: the Snip and Pin Revision.

I *loved* this revision method!  After I read through it, highlighting and underlining all the important parts (and there were a lot), I boiled it down to 14 steps, as follows:

1. Type it up - 3 spaces between each sentence (I took this to mean hit enter 3 times between each sentence)
2. Print it out
3. Cut out all the sentences
4. Move those pieces around.  Mix, toss, mix, choose, mix; arrange it all before rewriting
5. Reread the whole thing.  Any gaps?  Missing info?  Label words?  Fix those now.
6. Revision (Ch. 7 goes into details) - but only pick 3 or so critical points to revise (follow steps 1-5 here)
7. Revise the opening and conclusion (again follow steps 1-5 for this)
8. Staple all those strips onto new paper to keep them in order
9. Rearrange, copy and paste on the computer to match the stapled strips
10. Print it out
11. Edit (Ch. 8 gives these details)
12. Fix the edits on the computer
13. Print it out
14. Enjoy!

A few things I learned along the way:  I need to step back and let HER be the author of her own writing.  I may offer suggestions, but she doesn't have to follow them or take my advice.  I need to offer lots of positive feedback first, and then wait awhile (later that day, or even days later) before offering a critique.  Just because she doesn't take my advice this time doesn't mean she's not hearing or thinking about it.  Maybe next time - or a later time - she'll remember our conversation.

And finally, we don't have to revise *everything.*  Not everything needs to be.  Sometimes they're good enough.  Sometimes she just likes it the way it is.  And that's OK.  They belong to her.

My assignment this week:

1. I began the 8-week freewrites this past week.  So I will do Week 2 this week.
2. As I read with the kids, make a deliberate attempt to discover elements of surprise in the writing.